Finding cities, towns, and other places by name is not always as simple a task as one might expect. For genealogists researching their ancestral origins, a lack of familiarity with local human geography of foreign countries along with language barriers and name changes, can make the research process all the more difficult. Having a complete list of place names for a given country has obvious value. Having a reverse alphabetical index may be even more valuable.

Reverse indexes help researchers uncover town names when they have partial names but not complete names. Specifically, when they have the last part of a name, but not the first part. This happens more often than you may think. Over time, documents are damaged from weather, water, bugs, mold, over-tight bindings, and more. Ink blots and poor imaging, for electronic and microfilmed resources, may also attribute to the loss of information. Misspelling may also mislead researchers. A reverse alphabetical index may help uncover towns and locations, filling in missing or damaged information.

Switzerland Place Name Indexes is a CD based index to locations in Switzerland, providing both English and German spellings. The disc includes, among other searches, both alphabetical and reverse alphabetical indexes. If fact, this tool offers the identification of correct place name spellings through four different search options:

Alphabetical Indexes: For all of Switzerland or by canton, search for a specific set of letters in the standard alphabetical order.

Reverse alphabetical indexes: For all of Switzerland or by canton, search for a specific set of letters at the end of a place name.

Interior searches: For all of Switzerland or by canton, search for any combination of consecutive letters (such as -berg-) in any position of the place name.

Parish affiliation search: Determine the parish to which any given town in Switzerland belongs.

This CD-ROM is compatible with any PC Windows browser. The program is completely bilingual, so that users who read both German and English can enjoy the search options. Instructions for the use of the reverse alphabetical indexes are provided, as is a map of the cantons of Switzerland. Any researcher with a desktop or a laptop computer featuring a CD-ROM drive can now perform these searches in seconds and solve the mysteries of spellings for place names in Switzerland.